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Kewell ruled out

Australian star Harry Kewell has been ruled out of the Socceroos line-up for Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier against Qatar at Brisbane Stadium.

Australian star Harry Kewell has been ruled out of the Socceroos line-up for Wednesday night's World Cup qualifier against Qatar at Brisbane Stadium.

Kewell suffered a groin strain while playing for his club side Galatasaray and was not named in the Socceroos squad of 28 on Tuesday.

National coach Pim Verbeek had remained hopeful that his star would recover in time and left the door open for Kewell to be a late inclusion on Wednesday.

On Saturday that door was slammed shut though, when Verbeek revealed the veteran would not be taking part in the crucial fixture.

"Regarding all the traveling he has to make to come over here, the state of his injury, it was always a difficult decision, but Harry's not coming," Verbeek said.

Reporters broke news of Kewell's confirmed omission to Lucas Neill soon after and the surprised defender conceded it was a major blow for the Socceroos.

"Harry of course is a big loss to the squad, he brings a completely different dimension to our team, he's got great flair and great hunger to want to succeed, so of course he's a loss," he said.

But Neill backed some of the relatively greener players in the Socceroos squad to step up and fill the void.

"There is great talent and depth in our squad now and I think as a result unfortunately his loss will be someone else's gain."

"I'm sure whoever comes in to replace him will relish the opportunity and no doubt do themselves very proud for their country."

Kewell's omission means the Socceroos will now be missing a number of steadfast midfielders, with Vince Grella, Mark Bresciano and Carl Valeri all also unavailable for selection.

Verbeek said it would be a test for his side's playing stocks.

"Carl Valeri, Vince Grella, they are central midfield players, Bresciano and Kewell, they play on the left side, so we are a little bit unlucky that in the two positions we are missing the two players."

"But we have a big squad, we have enough players."

Verbeek was confident that his charges would rise to the occasion, suggesting the Socceroos have a fine track record at playing without key names.

"We did it also in the previous qualification, we missed sometimes four, five or even in China we missed seven players."

"We showed that we can do a job without them, that's what we'll have to do on Wednesday."

Just how Verbeek will deal with a number of selection headaches, such as the unavailability of his midfield quartet as well as the inclusion of the formerly retired Craig Moore, remains a mystery.

The Dutchman said he had basically decided on his line-up and formation for the match against Qatar, but obviously revealed little to the media.

"I know what I'm going to do for Wednesday, it's just all about the final details, I like to have confirmation in the coming days that my plans are the right plans."

"So I still keep everything open, but of course I know what I'm going to do on Wednesday night."